Campus News & Events

Richard Winslow, the John Spencer Camp Professor of Music, Emeritus, died July 24, 2017 at the age of 99. A service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 1 at the Antrim Baptist Church, 85 Main St. in Antrim, N.H. All are welcome. Winslow received his BA in English from Wesleyan with the Class of 1940, and his BS and MS from the Julliard School. He joined the Wesleyan faculty in 1949 and taught music here for 34 years until he retired in 1983. During this time, he advocated for and oversaw the establishment of Wesleyan’s renowned program in…

In light of President Trump's tweeted ban on transgender Americans serving in the military, Richard Slotkin, the Olin Professor of English and American Studies, Emeritus, writes in The Conversation about the long history of integrating minorities into the U.S. military. The armed forces have long "played a vital role in shaping American social policy toward the country's minorities," Slotkin writes. He recalls how "fear and resentment" of African-Americans and immigrants from Asia and Europe "generated a political backlash," resulting in oppressive Jim Crow laws and an anti-immigrant movement in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then, "The crisis produced by…

Peter Rutland, the Colin and Nancy Campbell Professor in Global Issues and Democratic Thought, is the author of an article, "Imagining Russia post-Putin" published by The Conversation. The article appeared in Raw Story, Houston Chronicle and San Francisco Chronicle, among other publications. Rutland writes that Vladamir Putin is almost sure to win re-election as president of Russia in the March 2018 election. The Russian Constitution requires him to step down after two consecutive terms, a problem Putin solved in 2008 when he moved sideways to prime minister as his protege took over as president. Putin returned to the presidency in 2012. (more…)

Tyshawn Sorey MA '11, assistant professor of music, is called a "preternaturally talented multi-instrumentalist who has built a career in the territory between standard definitions" in an extensive profile in The New York Times. "In some circles, he’s thought of as a jazz drummer; in others, he fits in more as an avant-garde composer," the article says of Sorey, who is about to release his sixth album, "Versimilitude." The article discusses Sorey's background, from his modest upbringing in Newark—where his public schools offered little in the way of arts education and his father "helped foster his affinity for music"—to his study…

In light of news that the Justice Department will investigate college affirmative action, President Michael S. Roth writes in Inside Higher Ed to urge resistance to efforts to restrict affirmative action. "Ever since the founding of this country, we have recognized that education is indispensable to our vision of a democratic society. All men may be created equal in the abstract, but education provides people concrete opportunities to overcome real circumstances of poverty or oppression," he writes. "Promoting access to a high-quality education has been key to turning American rhetoric of equality into genuine opportunity. And throughout our history, elites threatened by equality,…

On Aug. 2, Stephen Angle, the Mansfield Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies, professor of philosophy, together with colleagues at Notre Dame and Fordham, received a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) to support a two-week NEH Summer Institute for college and university faculty focusing on the idea of teaching "Philosophy as a Way of Life." Twenty-five faculty from around the country will be invited. The award—worth $137,045—is part of the NEH's recent $39.3 million in grants for 245 humanities projects across the country. The "Reviving Philosophy as a Way of Life: A NEH Summer Institute for…

Michelle Personick, assistant professor of chemistry, received a two-year doctoral new investigator grant from the American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) to synthesize and test new metal nanomaterials designed to make industrial chemical processes more energy efficient. Her study, titled “Tailored Bimetallic Catalysts with Highly Stepped Facets for Selective and Energy-Efficient Epoxidation and Hydrogenation Reactions," will be supported for two years with a $110,000 award. "Global energy consumption is steadily increasing, and the chemical industry is the second largest consumer of delivered energy," Personick said. "The chemical industry is unique in that it uses energy resources, such as petroleum…

Wesleyan students will have the opportunity to learn collaborative filmmaking skills before being transported to a metaphoric desert island with nothing but a camera phone and a song when award-winning independent filmmaker Michael Pope and singer-musician-writer Amanda Palmer ’98 team up for a new course this fall: The Art of Doing: Creative Project Production and Making It Happen. The studio class, which will be limited to 15 students, will focus on non-traditional video production techniques resulting in a class-created video featuring music and performance by Palmer. (more…)

The 2016-17 Wesleyan University Athletics campaign will go down in the record books as one of the most successful years in Wesleyan Athletics history. Several programs notched their best seasons ever, while breaking numerous records in the process. In all, the Cardinals claimed two national championships, five Little Three titles, one NESCAC Championship, one semifinal appearance and one quarterfinal appearance en route to the No. 50 ranking out of 324 Division III schools in the Learfield Directors' Cup – Wesleyan's highest ranking since the standings were introduced in 1993-94. Watch a sports highlight video below: The Cardinals' five Little Three…

More than 120 undergraduate research fellows shared their summer and ongoing research during the Wesleyan Summer Research Poster Session held July 27 in Exley Science Center. “This really is wonderful that all these students are on campus this summer and that they are here, sharing their research,” said faculty advisor Tom Morgan, the Foss Professor of Physics. "It's really incredible." Photos of the poster session are below: (Photos by Olivia Drake) (more…)

The Robert F. Schumann [’44] Foundation has given Wesleyan $2.5 million to establish the Robert F. Schumann Institute of the College of the Environment (COE). The Institute will integrate approaches to learning, research and communication about environmental issues in ways that extend the COE’s educational programs within and beyond Wesleyan. The Schumann Institute will provide students with life-changing experiences that will develop their abilities to address environmental issues. In order to achieve these goals the Institute will collaborate with or stimulate programs in global studies, civic engagement, arts, environmental (in)justice and sustainability and food security and agriculture. “I’m so pleased…

Writing in The Washington Post, Associate Professor of Government Erika Franklin Fowler and Sarah Gollust '01 show how local television news coverage is making it more difficult for the Senate to repeal the Affordable Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare. "The ACA repeal was always going to be a tough, uphill battle in the Senate, as we explained here in May. The stakes are high — both for the millions of Americans who now have insurance through Obamacare, and for the Republican Party that promised to repeal it," they wrote. "Senate efforts have failed so far for a variety of reasons.…

Winslow Remembered for Establishing World Music Program

Slotkin Writes About History of Integration in the U.S. Military

Peter Rutland Writes About Putin, Future of Russia

Sorey Is ‘Obliterating the Lines,’ According to New York Times Profile

President Roth Writes a Strong Defense of Affirmative Action

Angle Awarded NEH Grant to Fund Innovative Philosophy Teaching Institute

Personick Awarded Grant from American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund

Palmer ’98, Pope to Teach Wesleyan Students about “The Art of Doing”

2016-17 One of the Most Successful Years in Wesleyan Athletics History

Research Shared at Summer Poster Session

Robert F. Schumann Institute of the College of the Environment Is Established

Fowler, Gollust ’01: Local TV News Is Making it Harder to Repeal Obamacare